Tag: paint

Life can take you on many journeys and down different paths. Sometimes you may be on your way down a path and realize that you want to change your direction. This may happen a few times or many times in life. It is important to listen to the small voice inside that is telling you to go a different way. Even if changing the way you are going brings you to a more difficult path than the one you were on.

The art journaling piece above was from week 1 of the Wanderlust 2018 class, with the theme of your road trip or journey. I decided to show how I moved through my feelings about my life during the second half of last year. It was a time of happiness and a time of difficulty, with a lot of transitions along the way. I have come through it all with a renewed sense of self and a calmer outlook on life. My litmus test for everything now is to ask myself the question, “Is this important… does it really matter or can I let it go?”

The art journaling piece above was from week 2 of the Wanderlust 2018 class, with the theme of finding your path. I have been art journaling at the coffee table and using my Pelikan watercolor pan set which is not messy like acrylic paint. It is winter and it is cold in the art studio. It takes too long for the space to heat up when I want to do something in the moment, i.e. right now. In this piece I let the painting evolve as I went along and it only seemed natural to add the sun and some stylized rays of light. I am really enjoying the Wanderlust class which is run by two wonderful artists based in the UK.

The art journal piece above was from Life Documented week 3 and this is a playful take on the theme of being yourself. I love the quote! Life Documented provides free weekly art journaling prompts and I am doing the prompts along with my sister who lives about an hour away. It is great having an art journaling buddy!

I painted this canvas last weekend to celebrate the new year. My son gave me a package of 10 high flow golden acrylic paints for Christmas and I was eager to try them out. They are liquid paints in squeeze bottles and the colors are brilliant and super saturated.

I made a mess on my art table and got paint all over my hands. It was fun! I started out by dripping cool colors of paint (blue and green) on the canvas and spreading the paint around with an old credit card and a paintbrush.

While the paint was drying, I looked for my stencils and thought about which ones to use. The paint was not drying fast enough, so I used my heat gun to speed up the process. Then I added some warm colors to the canvas (red, orange and gold) and spread those around.

At this point the painting had a bit of a glow but it was looking kind of dark and I did not like that. Unlike watercolor paints which I had used for many years, you can always paint over something that you want to change with acrylics.

I chose an ivory bottle of craft paint, added some beads of this below the top edge of the painting, and tilted the canvas so that the paint would run down to the bottom edge. Now the piece was starting to take shape.

I had a circle opening cut out of plain paper and used that to paint a circle on the right side. The paint bled underneath the paper, so I used a baby wipe to restore the round shape. There is always a way to recover from a mistake and move on, if you open your eyes and see. Painting is like life and life is like painting.

I used my random circles template (this one came from Artist Cellar) and put a band of small ivory circles down the left side. Then I carefully put some small purple circles on top of the large ivory circle.

I stood back and looked at the canvas. The piece was saying what I wanted it to say. For me, it held that childlike wonder I feel when I look out my window and it is snowing outside. I added the word believe and I was happy.

Believe in miracles. Believe in the small things too. Most of all, believe in yourself.